no audience, 'judge o' character' is not some irish guy with a gavel and a robe.

What I'm wondering is this (by wondering, I mean its making me nuts..yay subtlety gene):

how is it possible that in the same case you can try to interrogate witness/suspect A successfully when the judge of character skill has reported that the chance of success is 59, while trying the same trick on witness/suspect B can fail even though the chance of success is higher?

Don't get me wrong...it normally works. But in those instances when it doesn't, I'm all 'what the hell?'

I have pounded my head against the wall with the same question to no avail. And it's the same with the townies. I had to bribe one that I had an 89 point chance with and the next one I had a 56 point chance with and they answered. And ONCE I had a 113 point chance (which had previously meant it was pretty much guaranteed) and STILL had to bribe her!!! I ended up with a concussion on that one. *grin*

So, I have no answer. Just commiseration. *puts arm around Crunch's shoulder*

its not a straight percentage orbitrux, I thought that too until I saw numbers higher than 100. Dented both my toes and my forehead with a series of kicks to the head-slash-headbutts to the foot when I learned that one. To the outside observer it would have looked like yoga on amphetemines.

*is so pained and confused he stuffs a typenol in his sock*

jk. Thanks for clarifying that one Anstett, I thought it might be something like that but it's nice to have confirmation.

lol yay commiseration! *starts support group with della for victims of randomness*

*still thinks it's percentages, and the higher numbers mean you will succeed*

Anyway! I've also noticed that the base number has a lot to do with it. If I have two suspects at 84, but as a charming detective talking to a male, and I choose charm(meaning that the tough base is higher), it usually will fail, but if I choose tough, it'll usually work.

But with all the randomness of this game, its very possible that it's just dumb luck.

Yes, there is an element of luck on any of those cooperation stype skill checks. If Judge of Cahracter says you have an Adjusted Interrogation Chance of 59, then that should mean a 59% of success.

The numbers can go over 100, but in those cases, it is still important to get the numbers as high as possible. The reason is because when making those skill tests, the game has a concept of super successes. In the case of a cooperation skill, if a test is passed by a small margin, the suspect will only answer one additional question. If the test is passed by a larger margin, they will answer more than one extra question. So, higher numbers are always better, even when you're talking over 100.

Also, there are a couple of factors that aren't currently taken into account in that Judge of Character report. For instance, the "status" rating of your agency's headquarter does effect these tests but currently that isn't taken into account by Judge of Character. There is also another secret adjustment that I'll keep my mouth shut about. These tend to be small adjustments however, so Judge of Character is very useful to people with duplicated Toogh and Charming skills.